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"No calorie-counting needed, just "eat intuitively" folks!"
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I went from paleo to tracking calories while paleo to intuitive eating. In the nearly 3 months I ate intuitively, I gained back close to 20 pounds. I've seen supporters of intuitive eating say that your body will be the weight it wants to be naturally. I disagree. So now I'm marrying together intuitive eating and tracking macros/calories. Because I think if there's something I really want to have, I can fit it into my day and not have to feel deprived. And I'm not eating more calories than my body needs that way.0
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I think it depends on the person. Firstly, I would think you'd have to be at a healthy weight already. If you're overweight and trying to eat "intuitively," your body is going to fight to remain at the same weight so you'll still overeat if you are genuinely only eating when hungry and stopping when satisfied.
Beyond that, I think this would also lead to weight "creeping up" over time, even if it was slowly. Eating just 200 extra calories per day would cause a 20 pound weight gain over the course of one year, and one is not likely to feel "stuffed" or like they've overeaten with just 200 extra calories. It's easy to add on extra calories without contributing to the feeling of fullness, especially when you consider things like dressings and sauces.
FWIW, I very temporarily tried a plant-based diet a couple of months ago thinking perhaps it could be my "new thing." I tried a vegal meal delivery services. Biggest mistake ever, for me. Although I actually enjoyed the food and was getting plenty of calories, the satiety wasn't there. I would eat a HUGE volume of food and be absolutely starving one hour later, to the point where I felt like I hadn't eaten all day. After a couple of weeks of this I binged the most I ever have in my entire life.
If someone can make intuitive eating work for them, I think that's great. I would bet that these people fall into the "naturally thin" camp. I've found out the hard way that calorie counting is the only thing that works for me.3 -
https://www.anareisdorf.com/single-post/2017/08/23/Why-Intuitive-Eating-is-a-Cop-Out-1
Intuitively eating all the things in the unconscious mode would be my preferred go-to if I practiced this.
"People who struggle with obesity simply do not have the same ability as normal weight people to "listen to their hunger cues". First, the obesity has screwed up their hormones. Many are resistant to insulin making them eat more AND leptin making them unable to stop eating when they are full."
Oy vey, that's true for me.4 -
I lost over 50 pounds and got to a low weight by intuitive eating. Irony is when I joined MFP and began logging, I re-gained a lot. Am debating on leaving lol.5
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KrazyKrissyy wrote: »I lost over 50 pounds and got to a low weight by intuitive eating. Irony is when I joined MFP and began logging, I re-gained a lot. Am debating on leaving lol.
You were not eating enough then.5 -
KrazyKrissyy wrote: »I lost over 50 pounds and got to a low weight by intuitive eating. Irony is when I joined MFP and began logging, I re-gained a lot. Am debating on leaving lol.
...so just out of curiosity, why did you join MFP then? What was your goal?5 -
Thank you. This was divine providence. I couldn't remember the title of this thread. Intuitive and mindful eating works for those who need to be encouraged to eat. Period. There are many eating protocols and books out there being promoted by those who have eating disorders, secretly or openly. They have food so compartmentalized with so many rules and regulations that it's leading many into more disordered eating.
When you have a corresponding rule cooked up out of someone's head and bias for every single occasion for you to follow, you are being led into a food prison. I have eyes and I can see that when you intuitively eat one bowl of food aday with a smattering of some secret sauce and a few bobbles of ground turkey on lettuce twigs and pretend it tides you over for the entire day, intuitively and mindfully....that's disordered.
When you openly cry because you ate more than 2 bites of a donut, that's disordered. When commercial snacks throw you for such a loop that it takes a month of intense eating drama to overcome...that's disordered.3 -
If that worked I wouldn't be OVERWEIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE.1
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MFP is my Positive Food Management Plan. When you see the MFP veterans all stacked up on the runway, ready for takeoff and they're all saying the same things, that's not because they are 'Bots'. Nooo, they've been through the mill, wrung through the wringer with diets. The old hands won't lead you down a path that will get you nowhere good.
The MFP veterans kept me going for a couple of years before I ever said a word on this forum. We know through trial and error and gutting it out that tracking our stats works for us for the long haul.5 -
L1zardQueen wrote: »I wish. I got fat by eating intuitively.
I dunno. From my understanding eating intuitively doesn't mean eating everything your taste buds crave while ignoring bodily feedback. For example I could eat a whole 15" pizza in one sitting because it tastes nice, that said after 3 -4 slices I'll begin to feel physically uncomfortable. I could just ignore that and keep going, no problem however that is no longer "intuitive" of me. Does that make sense?
For me intuitive eating should really be called informed eating. You're not necessarily oblivious to your intake, you're mindful of it. It's like the susscful combination of listening to your body cues while factoring in your goals. It's like an art more than anything. Each to their own though. There's more than one way to skin a cat.5 -
YouAgainstYou wrote: »L1zardQueen wrote: »I wish. I got fat by eating intuitively.
I dunno. From my understanding eating intuitively doesn't mean eating everything your taste buds crave while ignoring bodily feedback. For example I could eat a whole 15" pizza in one sitting because it tastes nice, that said after 3 -4 slices I'll begin to feel physically uncomfortable. I could just ignore that and keep going, no problem however that is no longer "intuitive" of me. Does that make sense?
For me intuitive eating should really be called informed eating. You're not necessarily oblivious to your intake, you're mindful of it. It's like the susscful combination of listening to your body cues while factoring in your goals. It's like an art more than anything. Each to their own though. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
The key is in there.
Mindful eating.
We have progressed beyond our lizard brains, so we can be mindful of what we are eating.2 -
Aaron_K123 wrote: »KrazyKrissyy wrote: »I lost over 50 pounds and got to a low weight by intuitive eating. Irony is when I joined MFP and began logging, I re-gained a lot. Am debating on leaving lol.
...so just out of curiosity, why did you join MFP then? What was your goal?
I joined MFP to make adjustments and learn more about macros/percentages. Although I was at a comfortable weight after intuitive eating, I was skinny-fat. Since then (while using MFP) I've re-gained half of what I lost. My ultimate goal is to get really lean (not to be confused with skinny-fat).4 -
MFP is my Positive Food Management Plan. When you see the MFP veterans all stacked up on the runway, ready for takeoff and they're all saying the same things, that's not because they are 'Bots'. Nooo, they've been through the mill, wrung through the wringer with diets. The old hands won't lead you down a path that will get you nowhere good.
The MFP veterans kept me going for a couple of years before I ever said a word on this forum. We know through trial and error and gutting it out that tracking our stats works for us for the long haul.
Well said!! I love calling it your "Positive Food Management Plan". That's an awesome attitude :-)1 -
I love calling it your "Positive Food Management Plan".
I appreciate that.0 -
Intuitive eating seems to be able to keep me within a certain range, but it doesn't keep me at my ideal. I've never actually ever been technically overweight, and have never been on any kind of a "diet" prior to MFP.
But as I aged, even though I'm an active person and love my fitness activities, I had gotten near the top end of the healthy range (where I don't look or feel my best) by way of "intuitive" eating habits. I guess that would be fine if I didn't mind just being a medically acceptable weight, but still feeling sluggish and looking kinda blah. But I want more for myself.
If I want to be at my best, it takes some fine tuning. Intuitive eating doesn't cut it for me. I have to actually pay attention and track it. That's why I've been here successfully maintaining on MFP since 2011.
But if intuitive eating works for some people, more power to them! I just don't think it's realistic for most...
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When I did really strict paleo, with very little stress and a lot of sleep, I was at my lowest weight I have been since I was 20. I was pretty disciplined about how often I had "treats" and what kind, and how much. I stayed at home with my two young kids and it was extremely easy to not over eat because I didn't keep any processed food in the house, and ate mostly vegetables. It wasn't a bad way to live, however it became unsustainable once I went back to work. And then I got divorced, and it became even more difficult to follow the guidelines outlined in the first post.
Now, I'm counting calories and macros, so I don't have to feel deprived, but I am also keeping within a limit so I don't gain more weight, ether. I wish I could just fall back into those old habits, but they don't work for my current lifestyle... so counting calories it is.0 -
YouAgainstYou wrote: »L1zardQueen wrote: »I wish. I got fat by eating intuitively.
I dunno. From my understanding eating intuitively doesn't mean eating everything your taste buds crave while ignoring bodily feedback. For example I could eat a whole 15" pizza in one sitting because it tastes nice, that said after 3 -4 slices I'll begin to feel physically uncomfortable. I could just ignore that and keep going, no problem however that is no longer "intuitive" of me. Does that make sense?
For me intuitive eating should really be called informed eating. You're not necessarily oblivious to your intake, you're mindful of it. It's like the susscful combination of listening to your body cues while factoring in your goals. It's like an art more than anything. Each to their own though. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
I agree. Informed eating works better. Although still not for everyone, my portions tend to creep up without me noticing. Eating intuitively basically means eating by following your intuition about what and how much you want to eat to feel full. If you're making conscious informed decisions about food types, frequency, and portion, it's no longer intuitive.
For what it's worth, the book that popularized this term states exactly that: eat everything your taste buds crave until you're full. I'm aware that the term has morphed to mean "tracking-free eating".2 -
What book is that?0
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Hungry_Shopgirl wrote: »What book is that?
Intuitive Eating.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235869.Intuitive_Eating
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amusedmonkey wrote: »Hungry_Shopgirl wrote: »What book is that?
Intuitive Eating.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235869.Intuitive_Eating
Lol pretty straightforward. Thanks :-)
If you've read it, what did you think? Was it as "revolutionary" for you as the authors claim?0 -
Hungry_Shopgirl wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Hungry_Shopgirl wrote: »What book is that?
Intuitive Eating.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235869.Intuitive_Eating
Lol pretty straightforward. Thanks :-)
If you've read it, what did you think? Was it as "revolutionary" for you as the authors claim?
I oversimplified the "eat to your taste buds and satiety/satisfaction" part. They propose a whole theory behind it. I think the book has some good ideas that would help any dieter. Moving away from the mentality of "bad foods", not depriving yourself, enjoying your meal because it tastes good and nourishes you (regardless of what it is), and many other productive thoughts that help heal how a stressed dieter approaches food. What I don't think it is, is a successful weight management approach for everyone (or even for most people). Even the book itself doesn't claim that you'll lose much, if any, weight. You may end up losing a whole bunch of weight or none at all. It's not exactly a dieting protocol.
I think it's worth a read, but with a grain of salt. Approaching it as ideas, not as a system, can be beneficial. I disagree with their overt opposition to any calorie-informed decisions, I also disagree with the way they approach "set point" among other things.
For me, personally, it wasn't revolutionary. I don't come from a background of chronic dieting and deprivation, and my self-worth has never been closely attached to my weight. I grew up in an environment where you rarely see people rank food in terms of "healthy", they're ranked more in terms of "quality". It was actually a cultural shock for me when I started dieting what people perceive as healthy and how much emotion/morality is attached to that. My situation is different, but I do believe this book can be revolutionary for some people (if they don't end up joining the HAES movement in a blind cultish way).1 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »YouAgainstYou wrote: »L1zardQueen wrote: »I wish. I got fat by eating intuitively.
I dunno. From my understanding eating intuitively doesn't mean eating everything your taste buds crave while ignoring bodily feedback. For example I could eat a whole 15" pizza in one sitting because it tastes nice, that said after 3 -4 slices I'll begin to feel physically uncomfortable. I could just ignore that and keep going, no problem however that is no longer "intuitive" of me. Does that make sense?
For me intuitive eating should really be called informed eating. You're not necessarily oblivious to your intake, you're mindful of it. It's like the susscful combination of listening to your body cues while factoring in your goals. It's like an art more than anything. Each to their own though. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
I agree. Informed eating works better. Although still not for everyone, my portions tend to creep up without me noticing. Eating intuitively basically means eating by following your intuition about what and how much you want to eat to feel full. If you're making conscious informed decisions about food types, frequency, and portion, it's no longer intuitive.
For what it's worth, the book that popularized this term states exactly that: eat everything your taste buds crave until you're full. I'm aware that the term has morphed to mean "tracking-free eating".
Oh it does? That's a bit silly imo. But I would argue that everyone who ends up championing intuitive eating was at some point a slick calorie counter type so they still have that info in their head whether they're aware of it or not. I feel if you have a background of counting you can quasi he intuitive alot better.1 -
In defence, I lost my first 10kg by eating intuitively. I then plateaued and picked up Mfp to help me with the plateau. Then I went back to intuitive eating and lost another 10kg. That was last year. This year I have on and off tracked using Mfp, losing when I track and plateauing when I don't. I've also had an injury that's caused issues as well.
I've picked it up again this week for the 2 months, hopefully I'll get to my goal, which is a healthy BMI. My problem is I get really obsessed and do stupid things that actually set me back.
So my take is do what works for you. Trackiis good for me for short periods to get through specific situations, but not permanent. Long term I want to do intuitive eating, which worked really well for me for most of my weight loss.2
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